German paper's cartoon depicting Israel as wild monster draws ire

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman and Jewish activists have criticized a major Munich newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, for publishing a cartoon demonizing Israel.

The cartoon depicted Israel as a wild monster about to feast with a fork and a knife while being served by a woman, along with with the wording, "Germany is serving. Israel has been given weapons for decades ­and partly free of charge. Israel's enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch."

Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, “the characterization of the Jewish state as a ravenous Moloch—an idol to whom children were sacrificed—is a blatant anti-Semitic canard,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

Hadas-Handelsman wrote a letter to Kurt Kister, the German paper’s editor-in-chief, stating that the drawing crosses the “limits of acceptable journalistic presentation.”